Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c13.s4.2

c13.s4.2

The excavations at Kankali Tila yielded a number of sculptures and architectural pieces, which once belonged to the two Stūpas at that site. A very early Jaina Stūpa existed at Mathura which as we know from the inscriptions was called Devanirmita Stūpa (Epigraphia Indica, Vol. II, 20) may probably be assigned to the 3rd century B.C. An image of Arhat Nandyāvarta was installed in this Stūpa in the year 89 (=A. D. 167). The word Devanirmita points to an extremely early tradition attributing the Stūpa to a divine origin. It probably confirms the belief that the original Stūpa was made of gold and precious gems which was later on encased by larger Stūpas of bricks and stones. The brilliant description of the Vimāna of Sūryābhadeva in the Rāyapaṣeṇiya Sutta has recorded the tradition of an archetypal devanirmita Stūpa. Taranath records a tradition that the Mauryan monuments were believed to be the works of the Yakshas and that the art monuments of the preceding age were the works of the Devas. Although there is a mythical element in this description it does give some indication of the high antiquity of the original Jaina Stūpa. According to Jinaprabha Sūri it was believed that the ancient Stūpa was erected by Kuberā Yakshī in honour of the seventh pontiff Supārśva. At a later date the first Stūpa was encased in bricks in the time of the twenty-third Tīrthaṅkara Pārśvanātha. Thirteen hundred years after Mahāvīra Bappabhaṭṭa Sūri organised a restoration of the older Stūpa which seems to be confirmed by the post-Gupta and Gupta sculptures found here. It appears that there were more than